The Badger Herald

SPORTS

Badgers in Big Ten mix

JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo

Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.

Also by Ben Voelkel:

Badgers dis-'Assemble' Illini (February 21, 2008)
Flowers takes medical leave (October 19, 2007)
Stingy defense shuts down Minnesota's offensive attack (February 18, 2008)
Bank's open: Polar Bear cashes in late (February 14, 2008)
Young, fearless Purdue squad has bright future (February 11, 2008)

by Ben Voelkel

Friday, February 22, 2008

This is where they wanted to be.

Wisconsin’s win over Illinois Wednesday night vaulted the Badgers back into a tie with Purdue atop the conference standings, which places them one half-game ahead of Indiana.

With just four games left in the regular season, the Badgers control their own destiny in the race for the Big Ten championship. Four more wins, and UW (22-4, 12-2 Big Ten) will lay claim to its first regular season conference title since 2003.

“Yeah, we would like to get a piece of the conference championship,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “We’ve said that since the first day we were on the job. Compete for it, and let’s see what happens.”

What appears likely to happen is a dramatic final two weeks of the regular season, with Wisconsin, Purdue and Indiana all looking to avoid a costly loss and earn a share of the Big Ten hardware.

“We’re college basketball fans. We know what’s going on in the Big Ten right now,” forward Joe Krabbenhoft said. “We know we’re in a good position to have some fun here at the end of the year.”

As all three teams currently have two league losses, a split championship is well within the realm of possibilities.

Making matters more tricky is that each team has swept another this season, meaning there is no easy tiebreaker to determine seeding for the Big Ten tournament in the event of a three-way tie.

If that were to be the case, Purdue would earn the No. 1 overall seed in the conference tournament, thanks to holding the best record against the other two teams combined (2-1). Wisconsin would take the second seed with a 2-2 mark, and Indiana would be ranked third.

The tiebreakers are only used to determine seeds for the Big Ten tournament, however. According to league rules, all teams tied for first place at the end of the season will earn a share of the conference title, including a conference championship trophy and rings.

And while that may end up happening, after having played all three teams twice, Illinois head coach Bruce Weber thinks Wisconsin and Purdue have separated themselves from Indiana.

“To me it seems … Wisconsin and Purdue are the two best teams,” Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said. “Obviously Indiana has something to say about that, but we’ve been able to play Indiana much closer.”

Ryan and the Badgers are no strangers to tight races for the Big Ten title or shared conference championships.

In 2002 — Ryan’s first year as head coach at UW — the Badgers shared the conference crown with Indiana and Illinois with an 11-5 conference record after surprising just about everyone by winning their final six games of the season.

One year ago in a battle of the nation’s top two teams, Wisconsin saw its Big Ten championship hopes dashed in the Value City Arena as Ohio State clinched the title on a Mike Conley Jr. floater in the lane with 3.9 seconds left in the game.

To keep themselves at the top of the standings, the Badgers will need to avoid a similar fate this Sunday against the Buckeyes.

Ohio State (17-9, 8-5) will be looking for another signature win to secure its place as an at-large selection to the NCAA tournament field and is not likely to simply roll over for Wisconsin.

“It’s the Big Ten; it’s a pretty good league,” Ryan said. “There are some teams that are trying to make some things happen.”

OSU big man Kosta Koufos (13.8 points, 7.0 rebounds) has matured as his freshman season has gone on and will need to be checked by the Badgers’ interior defense.

The only other Buckeye averaging double-digits in scoring is guard Jamar Butler. The offense flows around Butler, a senior, who leads OSU in scoring with a 14.2 points-per-game average and leads the Big Ten in assists with nearly seven a game.

The game, which can be seen at 3 p.m. on CBS, is the only regular season meeting between the two teams.

Add a comment

We welcome your thoughts, but please keep your feedback thoughtful, on-topic and respectful. Offensive language, personal attacks, or irrelevant comments may be deleted.